[pursuant to his reply, 8 January 2002, C.810W]: The table unfortunately contained a number of errors. The correct information is as follows:

Cost of tax relief2

Year

Claims received1

£ million

2000–01

125,000

30

1999–2000

250,000

60

1998–99

300,000

50

1997–98

300,000

45

1 Number of claims received and not the number of trainees as an individual could make more than one claim in a tax year. It was estimated that there were probably about 200,000 people claiming VTR in 1997–98 and 1998–99.